"They are satisfied the number of jermals and child labour has decreased but they don't do anything to eliminate it."

Instead, he says, the authorities seem content to let nature to take its toll on the remaining jermals so they eventually fall into disrepair and go out of business.

On the jermal we found Ngadiman says his contract is for a year and, if he is lucky, he will be allowed a home visit in September for Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.

By then, it would have been 9 months since he last saw dry land.

Life on a jermal is tough. Ngadiman says he works everyday doing the same thing: hauling the catch up from the sea, before the fish is boiled, dried and graded.

He says he misses his family and wants someday to be able to go back to school.

New recruits

"If the parents come to me I will ask whether the child is 18. If they say yes, I have to believe them"

Bawor,Jermal foreman

His foreman, Bawor, returns to the mainland every three weeks and is responsible for recruiting labour for the jermal

"The parents bring the children to me to ask for a job," he says.

"I know the minimum age to work in a jermal is 18. If the parents come to me I will ask whether the child is 18. If they say yes, I have to believe them - it depends on what the parents say, not how old the worker looks."

With no other way to make a living he says some parents even beg him to employ their children.

At night on the jermal, during the few hours of downtime, Ngadiman and his fellow workers gathers around a tiny television set powered by a generator.

It is their only connection to the outside world at least 4-hours boat ride away - the same distance they have to travel if they need medical help.

On a jermal safety precautions are virtually non-existent and accidents are common.

Staying quiet

There are few safety precautions and medical help is many hours boat-ride away

"I once stepped through a hole while drying fish and injured my leg," says Ngadiman. "There was blood. I cleaned it with my shirt, had a short rest and started working again.

While child labour is officially illegal in Indonesia, officials in charge of monitoring the situation say they lack resources to do their job effectively.

Dr Suwito Ardiyanto, Indonesia's director-general of labour inspection, says there are only about 1,600 inspectors spread across Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 13,000 islands.

Since local authorities took over responsibility for labour issues he says few people have been penalised for breaking child labour laws.

"I think it's because local authorities are not ready to take on more work if the cases go to court - so they prefer to stay quiet."

Back at sea the jermal on which Ngadiman and his foreman Bawor live and work is more than 20 years old.

With a lack of wood to repair the platform and growing competition from fishing boats, Bawor thinks it will last another two years before it finally rots and falls into the sea.